


First Gem of the Sea

by Allekha



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Dancing, Developing Relationship, M/M, Mid-Canon, Post-Canon, reconnecting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23852071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allekha/pseuds/Allekha
Summary: When Yuuri tells Victor that Lilia is one of his dream choreographers, Victor decides to make it happen one day - though it takes until they're living in Russia and until Victor remembers Yuuri's wish.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, Lilia Baranovskaya & Victor Nikiforov
Comments: 19
Kudos: 154
Collections: Spring Renewal 2020





	First Gem of the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Spring Renewal prompt: Any, Any, wish

It was another hot night in Hasetsu – hot, but still cooler than it had been during the day, and Victor had persuaded Yuuri to take a moonlit walk along the ocean with him and Makkachin. It wasn't the romantic thing he might have hoped for months ago; still, with the wind coming in off the quiet waves and Yuuri by his side, Victor felt content. He didn't yet know why Yuuri had become so much shier than he'd been in Sochi, but maybe one day he would figure it out.

Their conversation turned to skating, as it so often did even off the ice; tonight, they settled on the topic of other skaters they'd admired when they were young, before they were international competitors with fancy jumps. Victor talked a lot more than Yuuri did, but that was fine. As long as Victor found out _something_ about Yuuri. With everything he learned, from Yuuri's figures habit to the songs on his playlists, he wanted to learn more, more, more, anything to dig deeper into the person Yuuri was under the handsome stranger who had danced with him so brilliantly all those months ago.

"I remember wishing I could get a program from his choreographer one day," Victor was saying, brushing his hand along Makkachin's head, "since his were so cool. But then he got sick and now he doesn't work any more, so I never got the chance." Inspiration struck. "Yuuri, is there anyone you've wanted to get choreography from? Besides me, of course."

Yuuri gave him a shy smile before his eyes turned towards the dark ocean, face going contemplative. "Madame Baranovskaya," he said after a moment. "She always made beautiful programs for you."

"She did," Victor agreed. Lilia was a genius – he had no doubt that whatever she was putting together for Yuri this season would be a knockout, difficult program, if only Yuri rose to meet it. Probably something flashy. Yuri didn't have the artistic ability or the patience for her more understated styles yet. "Which was your favorite?"

"The Lilac Fairy program," Yuuri said, no hesitation, and then he looked a little embarrassed. Victor remembered him mentioning it before; he remembered the program, too, setting a world record with it in his last competition as a junior, how it had made him feel as light and pretty as any fairy even though (to Lilia's upset) he'd been dressed in sparkly black. It was a good choice. "And the Swan Lake program. I know a lot of people do Swan Lake, but... she made something special for you. And then the way you performed it was...." He trailed off, looking away.

"I liked those ones, too." He reached down to pet Makkachin's head again, but she sprinted up the beach, attention apparently caught by something more interesting than a couple of humans, before he could touch her. Victor pouted in her direction, but she sniffed at the sand, oblivious, until they caught up to her and she came back to his side. "I know," Victor said, his fingers once again buried in her fur. "Next summer, we should go visit Russia and we'll get you a program from Lilia!"

Yuuri did not look as excited by this idea as he should have been. "I don't think I could—"

"You're a much better dancer than Yurio, we all know that," Victor said, before he could hear any more protests to a perfectly good idea. "Lilia will love you. And we can say hi to Yakov and everyone at the rink while we're there!"

"I," Yuuri started to say, and then Victor saw him stop himself, saw him straighten. There was the Yuuri he wanted to see. "Let's talk about it during the summer."

"Okay." That was good. Maybe Yuuri could get a show program from her, too. He'd suit her demands perfectly. Victor couldn't wait to see what they would make together.

~!~

Months later, back in St. Petersburg earlier than expected – more permanently than he had expected only a few weeks ago – Victor had far more to think about than a long-ago conversation on a beach about programs, and like most promises, it entirely slipped his mind at first.

As he had known she would, Lilia adored Yuuri. She showed it in her usual subtle way – a slightly nicer tone to her critiques, a few more words of praise than she might have given – but as someone who had half grown up with her, her joy at having a talented dancer amongst her skating students was obvious.

Yuuri took to her strictness and her teaching style with ease, but to Victor's amusement, he was thrown, by all things, about what to call her. He'd tried out that 'Madame Baranovskaya' again a few times before she'd fixed him with a look after one lesson and told him to call her Lilia.

Seeing Yuuri's flustered look, Victor perked up, happy for a distraction after one of her exhausting lessons. "Maybe you could call her Lilia-sensei, like you call Minako – Okukawa, you know her, right, Lilia? – like you call her Minako-sensei."

Yuuri gave him a strange, mortified look. Lilia's eyebrows drew together. "Sensei?" she repeated to herself.

Victor, as a child, had been delighted to have a coach he was allowed to refer to informally and had assumed from the first moment that the same naturally held true for Lilia. It was so funny to see Yuuri struggle with the same, until he got used to just calling her Lilia like the rest of them.

It probably helped when Victor invited Yakov and Lilia over for dinner one night, eager to show off some Japanese recipes Toshiya had taught him over the summer with some help from Mari. Yuuri cooked with him, helping to make everything right, and everyone seemed to enjoy the food. Afterward, Lilia insisted on cleaning up in return, and with Yakov and Yuuri caught up in conversation, that meant Victor had to assist her.

Lilia let him ramble on for a few minutes, about the food and Hasetsu and how they really had to visit the hot springs there and how Yuuri was adapting to Russia. When she was done putting the dishes in the dishwasher, she straightened and interrupted him by tapping his cheekbone.

"When you were younger," she said, "I remember you having all manner of fleeting crushes, and yet none of them made your eyes light up like skating did. And then when I saw you at Nationals last year, you hardly had any of the expression I was used to seeing in you, as though someone had forced you to skate. Now, whenever you talk about him, it transforms you again." She gave him a long look. "I'm glad to see it, Vitya. We cannot exist and evolve without love."

He grinned at her. "He's amazing," he said. "I would even come back to competing because—" Whoops, that wasn't what he'd meant to say, the image he'd been putting up, but Lilia was kind enough not to comment on it. "Anyway, I can't wait to skate with him at Worlds."

She nodded, then turned to reach for one of his sponges to start wiping down the counter, the white tiles splattered from cooking. "He will do well if he skates cleanly. You gave him a very nice set of programs. The free in particular."

"He had music composed for it," Victor said, and he almost started to go on about how he hoped Yuuri might do that again next year when he remembered a moonlit beach and a long walk. "You know, I asked him once if he had ever wanted to get a program from someone, and he said he wants one from you."

She glanced at him as she scrubbed at a spot. "I would be happy to choreograph for him, should he ask me himself." She returned her attention to the counter, but murmured, "He suits classical music very well. I admit Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto is overused, but his interpretation of it was exquisite."

Victor, picking up a towel to help her, blinked and cast her a look. He knew from obsessing over Yuuri's old videos that Yuuri had skated that program several seasons ago. (And it _had_ been one of his better ones.)

Lilia always had possessed good taste.

~!~

With summer came vacation and shows and as many commercial opportunities as they could grab. Victor skated with Yuuri and vacationed with Yuuri, but not all of his sponsors wanted the two of them together, alas.

After spending one morning at a photoshoot, Victor came in late to an afternoon ice session. Yuuri was working hard out there, blades carving into the ice sparkling in the light, and Victor paused to admire him for a few minutes.

Before Victor decided to shout out to him and beg for a hug, Yuuri turned and skated to one end of the rink, stopping and posing. Curious, Victor waited. So he'd been working on his new program! And there was Lilia, standing at the boards with eyes as sharp as ever.

The music was classical, and bare. Yuuri did a series of turns to sparse piano notes, marked his first spin on a rising crescendo, marked jumps on bursts of notes that faded away to the simple base line. Not everybody could have pulled off something like it.

But Yuuri did; Yuuri skated like he was drawing the music out of the ice as he moved. Combined with the unusual song choice, the program was enchanting. It was still incomplete – Yuuri hesitated in the step sequence, and he didn't do it with all the jumps and spins, and the last few seconds were a bit directionless. But it was already beautiful, showing off Yuuri's lines and his musicality, all that ballet training.

When the run-through was over, Yuuri ran a hand through his hair, breathing heavily, and when he looked up, Victor could tell from his expression that he'd been spotted. "Yuuri!" he cried, throwing himself at the boards and waving his arms. "That was amazing! Gorgeous!"

"It's not finished yet," Yuuri said, but he came over for a hug anyway.

Afterward, Yuuri rushed off to drink some water before, no doubt, listening to a long stream of critique and thoughts from Lilia. Victor watched him leave, then looked at Lilia, intending to gush about Yuuri some more, but to his surprise, she was already looking at him, not at Yuuri or somewhere far away.

It was a considering look. Not just one that was happy to see how the affection between the two of them buoyed them both.

Victor remembered, for some reason, reading the translation of Yuuri's speech at the pre-GP series press conference. The one about all his support, feeling like he'd been fighting alone despite it. At the time, Victor had zoomed in on the part about Yuuri's complicated, unwordable feelings towards him, but the first part had resonated, too.

He hadn't been alone, not really. There had been Chris, off in Switzerland, and Makkachin at home, and Yakov at the rink and sometimes out of it. But he hadn't appreciated them enough; he'd been struggling for reasons he couldn't name, and he would never have thought to ask for help when surely he could come up with a solution on his own.

Victor had been making his own programs for years. His own choreography, his own music cuts – sometimes custom compositions – and closely supervised costume designs.

Maybe, he thought, it would be nice to ask Lilia for a program again. Go back to his roots for the Olympic year. It had been fun to work with her; she'd let him fuss over the details alongside her as he'd learned how choreography worked.

"Lilia," he said.

He didn't get to finish the sentence. "Let me know when you've selected your music," she told him, then turned back to Yuuri as he skated over.

Victor smiled at her, though she couldn't see it, and answered Yakov's glare from across the ice by hopping on himself. It was hard to concentrate on practice, though, when Yuuri's new program was evolving in front of him, already coming together into something beautiful that only Yuuri could show off, and it was hard to give a single thought to his own music choice when he was already thinking of what he was going to create for Yuuri that would be at least as lovely.


End file.
